Playing Telephone
by Poohdog
Summary: Funny how one little incident can turn into one very big rumor... One-shot. Hoshi/Malcolm


**Alright, so I admit, not usually an Enterprise or Star Trek of any kind writer… okay, so Emiliana Keladry (That's her name on here, so look her up!) just recently introduced me to watching Enterprise. And together we kind of came up with a sort of one-shot plot. Well, then she was going to write the story (with her superior knowledge on the subject) but, well, I got bored and in the mood to write something fluffy so I wrote one too! So we've got stories with the same initial plot but different insideness (I shall declare it a word, spell check!). You should check out hers regardless of whether or not you like mine because she's got a better grasp on this whole StarTrek thing and a different writing style. Well, after claiming this isn't mine (Um, it's not mine. I don't own Star Trek: Enterprise) I'm going to leave you to read.**

"You must eat very slowly," Hoshi commented, looking over at Malcolm. She brought her tray over to the table and sat down next to him. Otherwise the cafeteria appeared deserted. Hoshi was late. She had been working on a translation.

"I arrived later than everyone else." He looked over at her. "Well, most everyone."

"Why?" Hoshi asked curiously. Malcolm broke eye contact. There was no need to tell Hoshi that Trip and Travis had been exchanging swimming stories from when they were younger. He was sure that had he gone to dinner with them before they finished their conversation, he would be asked to contribute. Purposefully, he had stalled until he was fairly sure they would have moved onto another topic.

"Oh, you know," he answered, his voice squeaking slightly. He was suddenly far more interested in his serving of salmon.

"Are you okay?" Hoshi asked, resting her fork on the edge of her tray.

"Just fine," he mumbled before shoving a large bite in his mouth to avoid talking for a while. Hoshi raised an eyebrow.

"You sure?" she asked, reaching across the table to place her hand on top of his. Slowly, he swallowed his fish and looked over at her. For a moment their eyes met.

"I'm sure," he replied, far more confidently than he had felt a moment before. Hoshi smiled at him and he smiled back a bit shyly.

"So Hoshi-," he began.

"And I meant get to it now! Not after your poker game!" Trip yelled down the hall to one of the engineers, a laugh in his voice. The loud voice startled Hoshi and her hand jerked back from where it had still been resting on Malcolm's. Her elbow went to the side and a dull thud rang through out the room.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Hoshi yelped quietly, dashing to her feet, grabbing her napkin from her tray. The glass she had knocked over, which thankfully had held only water, had dumped all over Malcolm. More specifically, all over Malcolm's lap. And right as Trip passed the cafeteria, he saw Hoshi bending down by Malcolm, trying to help him clean up the mess.

"Hoshi. Hoshi!" Malcolm insisted, grabbing her napkin from her. "Err, let me clean it up myself," he stuttered blushing. Hoshi realized what she was doing and blushed herself, turning away. Neither of them noticed as Trip walked away, snorting.

"So I passed by the cafeteria, and Hoshi's trying to clean up the mess in Malcolm's lap," Trip was laughing. Travis was smiling, near laughing himself. T'Pol walked in, not saying anything. She tuned them out again as Trip continued with the story. When Captain Archer walked in a minute later, she was bent over her controls and Travis and Trip were laughing loudly over on the other side of the deck.

"Why are they so cheery?" he asked T'Pol.

"Something about Hoshi and Malcolm's lap," she replied dryly. "I have finished the report on-"

"What do you know about Hoshi being in Malcolm's lap?" Captain Archer asked Dr. Phlox as he came out of decon. "T'Pol heard Trip and Travis talking about it."

"I haven't heard anything," he answered. "But I will certainly keep my ear out for information."

"Thank you," Captain Archer said as he left the sick-bay. "Excuse me," he said to a crew member he bumped into on the way out. She nodded, trying hard not to sneeze. Her medication for her dog allergies had worn off. Being next to the captain made it all the more difficult. She opened her mouth to say something but instead covered her mouth with her elbow. Captain Archer smiled, clearing out of the sick-bay doorway and gesturing towards it. She nodded as a form of thanks.

"Certainly if any crew members need to relieve some of that sexual tension," Dr. Phlox muttered to himself inside. "Malcolm has a preference for Hoshi though. I suppose I could have predicted it." He looked up at the doorway at the crew member with her mouth and nose in her elbow, her eyes wide.

"Ah, here for your allergy injection?" he asked her. She nodded slowly, her mind still comprehending what she had heard.

"Apparently, Malcolm and Hoshi are relieving some sexual tension together if you get my meaning," she told another crew member at lunch. He raised his eyebrows at her.

"Really? Malcolm? As in the armory officer?" he asked. She nodded in return. "With Hoshi?" She nodded again, a large smile on her face. "Wow. Wow!"

"Do you think there being careful at least? Imagine having a baby on the ship," she said worriedly.

"Let's hope," he answered.

"Have you heard?" he asked another girl as he dropped her laundry into her arms.

"Heard what?" she inquired disinterestedly.

"There might be a baby on the ship."

"Are we adopting one from another planet? An alien? That's certainly a jump in inter-"

"No, Hoshi might be pregnant."

"Hoshi? As in the communications officer?" she checked, her voice jumping louder in surprise. He nodded.

"Apparently, with Malcolm."

"Oh hello," Malcolm said as she came up to him with a clipboard.

"Here's the report on the state of the phase guns," she said, handing it over. "Most of them appear to be in nearly 'like new' condition."

"Thank you," he told her.

"Oh, and, ah, congratulations," she said shyly before beginning to duck out.

"For what?" he asked after her. She turned.

"Um, you know. The-the baby," she told him.

"Baby?"

"Your- your baby with Hoshi," she answered before darting away. Malcolm stared after her a moment and then fainted in the hall.

"Malcolm. Malcolm Reed. Malcolm!" Travis yelled. Slowly Malcolm sat up and looked at him.

"Travis," he started, "how does a girl get pregnant?"

"Whoa, whoa, um, hey didn't you have this discussion with your parents a, um, long time ago?"

"I meant, well," he began to blush, "apparently Hoshi is pregnant."

"Hoshi?" he asked, startled.

"With-with my baby," he continued his eyes rather wide.

Travis raised his eyebrow. "Really? I didn't know you and Hoshi had ever-"

"No! We- we never have. But apparently she's preg-pregnant," he stumbled out.

"You sure you never-"

"No," he said, his blush deepening.

"Because you know it only takes once to-"

"No." His face was the color of a pink lady apple.

"Think, maybe if you were really drunk and-"

"No." Now it was the color of a ripe tomato.

"Because if she is pregnant that you probably have to have-"

"No!" Malcolm insisted, getting to his feet. His face had reached the color of a stop sign. "Hoshi and I have never had any form of- of contact in that manner," he proclaimed. Could someone blush down to their toes? Because his toes certainly felt warm.

"I don't know. I'd talk to her. Maybe you just don't remember for some reason," Travis suggested with a smirk. Briefly the thought of Hoshi in her underwear in decon flittered into Malcolm's mind. He shook it away before his mind went farther.

"Oh, I'd remember," he said. Travis snorted and placed his hand on Malcolm's shoulder.

"Well, until I hear otherwise, congrads, dad." Malcolm glared after him as he went down the hall.

That night Malcolm paced in front of Hoshi's quarters. "You know I can hear you, whoever that," she paused as she opened the door and saw Malcolm outside looking purely panicked. "Is," she finished lamely. "Malcolm, what's wrong?"

"Are you- What I mean to say is- Well you don't look at all fat but-"

"Malcolm!" she said in annoyance.

"I-I said you didn't. I-I needed to ask if- Well they were saying that-" Hoshi's offense turned to concern.

"Malcolm, what's wrong?"

He took a deep breath, feeling his cheeks turning every redder. "Hoshi, are you pregnant?"

"Pregnant?" she asked incredulously.

"Because everyone's saying that you're-"

"Pregnant?" she repeated.

"And that it's mine. The baby that you're-"

"Pregnant?" she said again, walking into her room and sinking down on the bed. Hesitantly, Malcolm followed. "How would I be pregnant?" she asked him.

"I-I don't know. It's just that people are saying that you-you are," he replied. Hoshi scooted over and allowed him to sit down on the bed next to her. He was bright red as he sank down.

"I'm not. I'm really not. Especially not with your baby."

"Oh," he said, looking away from her.

Her eyes widened realizing she had offended him. "I mean, if I- if I was pregnant I would-would prefer it was y-yours and not anyone-" she turned red herself and turned away. "Oh jeez."

"Um, uh," Malcolm muttered.

"Yeah, um."

"So, ah."

"Um, ah, um."

"For a communications officer you certainly have surprisingly poor language skills," Trip said from the doorway. "You left the door open. I couldn't help but hear." He leaned against the frame and smirked gleefully. "So, to sum up, Malcolm likes Hoshi, Hoshi likes Malcolm, and nobody on the ship is pregnant." He was laughing as he watched both Malcolm and Hoshi turn bright red when Dr. Phlox walked by.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that Trip. I think we need to have a discussion of what goes on between you and T'Pol." Trip turned pale and his eyes widened.

"Me and T'Pol?" he asked, his stance wavering. A loud thump rang down the hallway as Trip fainted. Hoshi and Malcolm both darted to their feet and bent down next to him.

"I only meant it as a joke," Dr. Phlox said, bending down along with Malcolm and Hoshi. Groggily Trip opened his eyes and with the doctor's help, got to his feet. "Let's take you to the sick-bay, shall we?" he asked with a smile, supporting Trip. Slowly, he nodded. Malcolm and Hoshi explained a glance at each other as they disappeared down the corridor.

"So do you suppose that means-" Malcolm began.

"I don't even want to think about it!" Hoshi exclaimed. Malcolm snorted and their eyes met for a moment. Then Malcolm looked down.

"So would you like to- um, go and, ah, talk about how we're going to dis-dispel this rumor?" he asked her, turning pink again.

"Sure," she answered. He looked up at her with a smile, still slightly blushing. He leaned forward and kissed her on the tip of the nose. She blushed slightly and then slipped her hand into his as they walked down the corridor.

"Did you hear?" one of the crew members said, walking past Hoshi and Malcolm. She was talking to one of her friends. "It's actually T'Pol who's pregnant with Trip's baby."

"No, I heard she wasn't sure whether it was Captain Archer's, Trip's, or Travis's," the other girl answered.

"Actually," Hoshi spoke up, turning and releasing Malcolm's hand. "It's mine. T'Pol and I are expecting a baby."

"Oh!" both of the other's said as Malcolm grabbed Hoshi's hand again and hurried away.

"Hey wait!" they heard down the hall as they disappeared from the sight of the pair.

**Okay, so here's your check list (not depending on whether you liked my story or didn't)**

**Check out Emiliana Keladry on to see her different story with the same plot**

**Review (please. I'll beg and give you Remy LeBeau… oh wait wrong category. Malcolm?)**

**Eat, Drink, and Be Merry. No wait someone else already said that. Eat cake? No, no I'm not a French Queen… Um, how about you just have a lovely day, or night, or you know, whatever time it is have a good one of those.**

**Poohdog**


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